Sir
In the past 15 years in the city of Sofia, there has been a strange contradiction in the large numbers of dogs seen on the street, followed by the disappearance most of them.

The situation in the city is linked to uncontrolled ownership, breeding and trading in domestic animals nationwide.

According to the Veterinary Medical Care and Supervision Act, a municipality can only collect and exterminate animals roaming unsupervised on the street, but at the same time cannot prevent the appearance of thousands of unwanted ones.

There are about 2000 to 3000 “neighborhood” dogs roaming free in various areas of the city at any point in time. A number of these have been sterilised, and they are not the reasons for the emergence of the thousands growing-up “newcomers”.

According to the act, it is up to the Bulgarian Government to take preventative measures. The act obliges the National Veterinary Medical Supervision Service to implement a register of the ownership, breeding and trading in domestic animals nationwide. Although long on the statute books, it has not been implemented and this is a factor contributing to the rapid rise in the dog population.

In Sofia, tens of thousands of owned dogs are unregistered and untagged. Because of the lack of data about the number of them and their offspring, there is a misconception among the public that owned dogs are not a contributing factor to overpopulation.

The immense delusion that there are enough candidates to become owners of the offspring, and the great misconception to that giving birth is a healthy act, entices almost every bitch owner to become an unregistered breeder. Precisely this is playing a crucial role in the increase in the dog population - a figure which is about 30 per cent annually.

On this unregulated nationwide market,  an enormous number of puppies are constantly offered and promptly dump for next to nothing or free. When they do find a home, they remain unregistered. A large number of their new owners soon get bored with them and in turn start trying to pass them to anyone for a secondary adoption. The number of the young animals continuously on offer means that for those getting a pet on impulse, there is little attraction in getting an adult animal.

The unregistered secondhand dogs rarely end up in the shelters.

There are only a few functioning dog shelters in Bulgaria, with a total gross capacity of 20 000 (about two per cent of the total dog population) and most of the animals that end up here were “street dogs”.

On the other hand, healthy owned dogs are being traded in through ads or theft and are systematically turned into a commodity for the illicit trade. At the same time, there are numerous registered cases in the Sofia city dog-shelter, that the animals kept in it are also falling prey to the illicit trade.

Emil Kuzmanov
Animal Programmes Bulgaria
Sofia